Chapter 435: Like Swallows Returning
Qin Mu suppressed the unease in his heart, averted his gaze from Granny Si, and then saw Butcher wielding his saber horizontally, standing atop a celestial star.
Butcher was tall and burly, his two blades held together, also motionless.
He then saw Qingyou Shanren. This mountain hermit held a horsetail whisk draped over his elbow, sitting in a lotus position. The spot where he sat was also a star.
Next, Qin Mu saw Mute, standing on a fiery star among the Great Firmament stars.
Qin Mu’s heart twitched violently, almost making him spit blood. He struggled to shift his gaze and saw Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor.
The Imperial Preceptor sat atop the Zhen Cauldron, and beneath the cauldron was also a star of the Great Firmament.
Qin Mu moved his gaze away from him, saw Grey Immortal and Fox Immortal, and then saw others within the Great Firmament stars. Cripple sat on one of the stars with Pharmacist, whose wounds were still bleeding. Blind man leaned on his bamboo staff, head bowed, also standing on a star.
There was also Horse Lord, like a Buddha, Deaf man holding a painting brush in his hand, Wing King holding a Wing Blade, and Kun King with a horn growing from his head. They were all within the Great Firmament stars erupting from Granny Si’s palm, each standing on a star.
“Where is Sister Jing? Why isn’t she here?”
Qin Mu quickly looked around, trying to find Yan Jingjing’s trace.
“Even the Sunship couldn’t stop the gods of the Upper Firmament?”
Suddenly, a bright beam of light swept over. Qin Mu saw a sun, half of it blackened. As the sun rotated, its light shone this way but soon turned in another direction.
The Sunship in the darkness was enormous, its hull blocked by a mountain peak, but the light emanating from the other side of the mountain was still faintly visible.
However, there was no movement from the Sunship either, and no aura could be sensed.
Qin Mu’s heart sank heavily. Fox Ling’er said, “Young master, I didn’t see Yellow Immortal or Earthmoving Peak…”
Qin Mu steadied himself and continued to unleash his eyesight. Twin beams of divine light shot from his eyes, illuminating the surroundings. He saw a god of the Upper Firmament standing in the air behind Granny Si, pointing a sword-finger at the back of her head.
Yet this god was frozen in midair, completely motionless.
Then he saw another god, the Flower Lord of the Upper Firmament, a woman with blooming flowers beneath her feet, covering the sky as if they grew from the heavens. She stood within one of the flowers, upside down, as if walking through the sky, attacking the Great Firmament star field.
But she, too, seemed frozen in the air, unmoving.
Qin Mu saw a third god, above the Sunship, a god spreading its wings and reaching out a claw, seemingly attacking someone on the ship, yet it was also frozen in midair.
Qin Mu looked further into the distance and saw other gods of the Upper Firmament. Their postures varied, as if they had suddenly stopped mid-battle, none of them able to move.
“Are they dead?”
Qin Mu tried to calm his mind but couldn’t. The scene was too bizarre—everyone was frozen in place, as if time had stopped. But if time had stopped here, why weren’t Qin Mu and the others affected?
“Master, they should all still be alive.”
Dragon King God suddenly spoke. “I can still sense their auras. Their breathing is still long and steady, only a few have lost their breath. But strangely, their primordial spirits are not in their bodies. It’s as if their primordial spirits were suddenly pulled out during the battle…”
Qin Mu was startled. “Primordial spirits pulled out of their bodies?”
Dragon King God nodded. “None of these bodies have primordial spirits. Judging by the formation of Granny Si and Yan Kang Imperial Preceptor, it seems to be a primordial spirit formation. The divine ability suddenly erupted, forcibly dragging the primordial spirits of everyone around out of their bodies. Based on my guess, their casualties might have been too great, so they intended to fight using their primordial spirits.”
Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief, feeling slightly reassured. “They aren’t dead; they’re just fighting with their primordial spirits… Dragon King God, you are knowledgeable. Do you know where their primordial spirits have gone?”
Dragon King God said, “Primordial spirits move extremely fast, traveling tens of thousands of miles in an instant, traversing the vast void. Their primordial spirits should not be here. As for where they are, that is beyond my knowledge.”
Qin Mu was stunned, then said hoarsely, “Which ones have lost their breath?”
Dragon King God pointed to Pharmacist among the Great Firmament stars, then to Cripple, then to Deaf man, Kun King, and Grey Immortal.
Qin Mu’s heart grew heavier and heavier. Dragon King God said in a low voice, “A few gods of the Upper Firmament have also lost their breath. It seems their primordial spirits were defeated in battle…”
Qin Mu’s face darkened. He stood up and walked to the Sunship, only to see everyone on board frozen in place, motionless. Clearly, when Granny Si and the others activated the primordial spirit formation, they had taken away the primordial spirits of everyone nearby, both human and divine, in one fell swoop!
“Young master…”
Fox Ling’er looked at Qin Mu’s face, feeling uneasy. “Young master, they…”
“They won’t die.”
Qin Mu closed his eyes, then suddenly opened them again, saying in a deep voice, “Dragon King God, possess me as well and lend me your power. I want to use the power of gods and demons to cast Soul Summoning! As long as their souls are not extinguished, I can summon their souls back!”
Dragon King God hesitated for a moment, then said, “Master, your physical body may not be able to withstand my power. I am different from these flood dragons; I am a god, and they are not. Borrowing their power, your Divine Bridge divine storage can still endure. But borrowing my power will cause the Divine Bridge divine storage to burst, since the Divine Bridge is broken and cannot advance to the next realm…”
Qin Mu said decisively, “If I tell you to possess me, then possess me!”
Dragon King God had no choice but to set down the physical bodies of Old Dao Lord, Old Tathagata, and the others, saying, “Master, I will transform into a great dragon and lie along your spine to support your physical body, preventing it from bursting. But I cannot protect your divine storage. If you cannot bear it, just say the word, and I will withdraw my power.”
“Possess me!”
Dragon King God rapidly shrank in size, turning into a sapphire-blue slender dragon about ten feet long. With a *shua* sound, it stuck to Qin Mu’s back. This dragon god gradually faded, leaving behind a sapphire-blue dragon mark on Qin Mu’s back, like a tattoo.
Qin Mu activated the Dragon Control Art, and the power of the flood dragons was immediately borrowed by him. A series of *bang bang* explosions sounded from within his body as the Seven Star divine storage, Heavenly Being divine storage, Life and Death divine storage, and Divine Bridge divine storage all opened!
The power of the flood dragons was already extremely vast, filling his Divine Bridge. Then he mobilized the power of Dragon King God, and the immense power surged through the Divine Bridge divine storage, reaching the Heavenly Court!
Qin Mu’s primordial spirit was pushed by this power, crossing from the Divine Bridge to the opposite shore, carried by the violent power toward the Heavenly Palace.
However, Dragon King God’s power was not enough to support him reaching the Heavenly Palace of the Heavenly Court, stopping him at the Southern Heavenly Gate, barely entering the threshold.
“Master’s Divine Bridge… is not broken!”
Dragon King God was shocked, but at that moment, Qin Mu stirred his immensely powerful energy and uttered obscure demonic words, activating Soul Summoning!
Soul Summoning was a technique of the Netherworld Gate Sect, not considered a remarkable divine ability in Yan Kang Kingdom. However, this technique had once caused great turmoil.
When Qin Mu first entered the Imperial Academy to study techniques and divine abilities, he did not choose any powerful ones but instead picked Soul Summoning and the Ghost Summoning and God Summoning Talisman Command. He believed these two techniques had peculiar qualities that could unleash unexpected power.
The Ghost Summoning and God Summoning Talisman Command was a technique left in Yan Kang Kingdom by the Capital Heaven Demon King, intended to use it to occupy Yan Kang and immigrate to this world.
As for Soul Summoning, its origin was likely not something the Netherworld Gate Sect could have created. This technique seemed connected to the Netherworld, and Qin Mu once suspected it might have come from the Netherworld itself, belonging to the category of Netherworld soul techniques.
However, he knew little of the Netherworld language and even less of the mysterious Netherworld world, so he had not been able to develop this technique to its fullest.
But even so, his mastery of Soul Summoning had already far surpassed that of the Netherworld Gate Sect in its heyday!
“Gate of Bearing Heaven, open!”
Qin Mu roared, and suddenly a terrifying gate behind him burst open. His power was violent, and this Gate of Bearing Heaven became exceptionally tall, hundreds of feet high. The two doors swung open, revealing the dark Netherworld world within. Rolling demonic energy surged from the darkness, invading the darkness of the Great Ruins, exuding an aura that made ghosts and gods tremble!
Practitioners of the Netherworld Gate Sect could never cultivate the Gate of Bearing Heaven; they only used the Soul Summoning technique to form a gate connecting to the Netherworld. But Qin Mu could. The Gate of Bearing Heaven he forged was the authentic one!
Once this gate opened, the power of the Soul Summoning technique erupted instantly. Talisman commands emitting a faint light rushed from the gate into the Netherworld, then the light of the talisman commands reflected, forming a path in the darkness like a floating bridge in the dark, extending deeper and deeper!
After a moment, suddenly rocks flew and the ground cracked. Skeletons crawled out from underground, dancing wildly.
More skeletons rose from the earth. This eerie power even spread to the Great Ruins and Yan Kang Kingdom. The ground in the Great Ruins and Yan Kang kept bulging, and various corpses and skeletons surged to the surface. Skulls opened and closed their jaws, trying to speak but unable to make a sound.
Qin Mu frowned. The more souls he summoned from the Netherworld, the more there were, but they were all souls of beings who had died nearby. He had not summoned the souls of Pharmacist, Cripple, or the others!
“They are not in the Netherworld? No matter what has taken you, I will find you!”
Qin Mu gritted his teeth and roared. The Gate of Bearing Heaven suddenly expanded, and the power of the Soul Summoning technique surged: “Grandpa Pharmacist, return your soul to me!”
“Ahead is Fengdu.”
In the realm of the dead, a god with a bird’s head and a human body led the way, saying to Pharmacist, Cripple, Deaf man, and the others, “Your old friend is waiting for you on the Bridge of Helplessness.”
“Old friend?”
Pharmacist was bewildered. “What old friend?”
The bird-headed god smiled. “You will know when you get there.”
When they arrived at the Bridge of Helplessness, Pharmacist and the others were stunned. Standing in the middle of the bridge, fully intact, was Village Chief, who smiled and said, “A few of you, meeting on the Bridge of Helplessness, you still…”
Before he could finish, suddenly black mist churned beneath the Bridge of Helplessness, forming a huge whirlpool. From within the whirlpool came a roar: “Grandpa Pharmacist, return your soul to me!”
Pharmacist, Cripple, and the others felt the world spin as they were pulled by the eerie force from the bridge into the whirlpool, tumbling into its depths!
A majestic roar came from Fengdu City: “What demon dares to stir up trouble in my Fengdu?”
The enormous figure of the King of Hell rose slowly, leaning down to look into the whirlpool beneath the bridge, seeing Qin Mu’s face at its deepest point.
The King of Hell was momentarily stunned.